Attacks in the Strait of Hormuz; Israel kills 57 Palestinians in Gaza in one week; No more elections in Nicaragua, Ortega says

U.S. strikes Iran for tenth straight night. Iranian issues waves of retaliatory attacks. Nearly 100 U.S. service members wounded this month, CBS reports. Iran’s IRGC says it will repel any U.S. incursion into Iran. Multiple attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. Shipowners offering bonuses to crews transiting Hormuz. Iran confirms Turkey helped block Kurdish insurgency plan. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel has “no interest” in joining Iran war. Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon despite U.S.-backed “ceasefire.” “Pilot zone” operations begin in Lebanon; Lebanese Army reports being fired on by Israel. Israel continues escalated assault on Gaza. Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank. France urges European Union to ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly planning election law change that could block Marwan Barghouti from Palestinian Liberation Organization leadership. Man killed fleeing ICE in Florida was on a valid tourist visa. Department of Homeland Security revives rule tying immigrant benefit use to green card eligibility. Judge temporarily blocks Paramount’s $111 billion Warner Bros. Discovery deal. Department of Justice sought phone records of New York Times journalists, relatives. New Orleans police briefly published policy allowing weaponized drones. State Department releases report accusing Cuba of “infiltrating” American left-wing. Israel shoots two children in southern Syria. U.S. hits Canada with new 50% tariffs. Police clash with ‘Cockroach’ movement protesters in India. Flash floods kill at least 20 in eastern Afghanistan. Floods and landslides kill at least 25 across northern India. Saudi coalition responds to Ansarallah maritime blockade, Saudi-backed government announces resumption of oil exports. Militants kill at least 50 soldiers in Mali. UN: Nearly 400,000 face emergency food insecurity in North Kordofan. President Daniel Ortega says Nicaragua will no longer hold elections. UN official: Haitian children jailed for years without trial. Eduardo Bolsonaro secures U.S. green card. Ed Miliband appointed UK foreign secretary. This is Drop Site Daily, our free daily news recap. We send it Monday through Friday. Today’s edition is being sent to more than 750,000 subscribers. Help us grow that number by forwarding and recommending this newsletter. Subscribe 🛒 Get your “ Drop [Site] News/Not Bombs ” Hoodie here: Get Your Hoodie Funeral procession for six Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine on July 21, 2026. Photo by Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/Anadolu via Getty Images. Iran U.S. strikes Iran for tenth straight night: The U.S. continued its bombing campaign in Iran on Monday and Tuesday, hitting several cities in the country’s south and claiming “disruptions” to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz as justification. U.S. airstrikes on Monday hit Chabahar and Konarak in the southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province, according to Iranian state media. Explosions were heard on Monday evening in the southern cities of Sirik, Bandar Abbas, and Bandar-Lengh as well as on Qeshm Island. Two explosions were also heard in the central city of Isfahan. Iranian retaliatory attacks: Iran launched attacks on U.S. military bases in the Gulf in response, claiming that it had successfully targeted U.S. missile-defense radar systems, air defense infrastructure and fighter planes, and units used to house U.S, military personnel. Iran’s military claimed that a Monday strike on a U.S. base in Jordan destroyed a F-15 fighter jet and a radar system, and that a separate attack struck a complex housing U.S. troops. This attack reportedly killed several American servicemembers, though the IRGC did not provide an estimate. Iran claimed three successful attacks on U.S. bases in Kuwait on Monday, including Camp Arifjan, the Al-Adhari military camp, and a barracks at the Ahmed Al-Jaber base. The attack on Camp Arifjan reportedly struck an HIMARS missile systems, according to the Iranian Army. This attack comes one day after U.S. Central Command posted a photo of HIMARS systems deployed in the Middle East. Iranian strikes hit and destroyed defense technology at bases near Manama, Bahrain, including a Patriot system, its military reported. Iranian missiles also struck what the Iranian military characterized as “the central data infrastructure” used by Amazon in Bahrain, according to a Monday statement. On Tuesday, Kuwait’s Energy Ministry said that Iranian strikes had damaged its power and desalination plants, causing fires at several sites. Nearly 100 U.S. service members wounded this month, CBS reports : Iranian strikes have wounded nearly 100 U.S. service members on American bases across the Middle East since July 7, U.S. officials told CBS News. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell maintained that most suffered minor concussions and said that about 96% had already returned to duty. IRGC says it will repel any U.S. incursion into Iran: The deputy commander of the IRGC’s ground forces said on Monday that his troops would “immediately” repel any U.S. incursion into Iranian territory, describing them as at “the highest level of readiness.” Attacks in the Strait of Hormuz: At least two ships were struck in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, with the U.S. blockade of Iran still ongoing and with Iran insisting vessels pass through the Strait through its northern route. A tanker was struck by an unknown projectile about eight nautical miles northeast of Oman on Monday evening, forcing the vessel’s crew to abandon ship, according to the UKTMO. Another vessel was struck on Tuesday morning by a projectile about 17 miles east of the United Arab Emirates. The projectile, also of uncertain provenance, reportedly damaged the vessel’s steering gear, according to the UKTMO, but resulted in no crew casualties. These attacks followed a statement from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that “massive fires” have broken out on two oil tankers that attempted to “pass through the unsafe southern route in the Strait of Hormuz.” Shipowners offering bonuses to crews transiting Hormuz: Sinokor, the world’s largest supertanker owner, has offered six months’ extra pay for a roughly month-long round trip which would involve a transit through the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reported on Monday. For the lowest paid crew members, this could total as much as $9,000, and for captains, it could equal $90,000. Shipowners often earn millions of dollars per Hormuz voyage, according to Bloomberg. Iran confirms Turkey helped block Kurdish insurgency plan : Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed in a Sunday interview that Turkey played an “effective” role in preventing an alleged U.S.- and Israeli-backed Kurdish insurgency from being launched against Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan earlier in the war. Araghchi’s remarks corroborate earlier claims by President Donald Trump that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan persuaded him to abandon the plan. Smotrich says Israel has “no interest” in joining Iran war: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday that Israel has “no interest in joining the campaign” against Iran, speaking at a conference. “The current situation is good for us, and we have no interest in pushing ourselves into it,” he said, adding that Israel is “prepared for any scenario.” Lebanon Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon despite U.S.-backed “ceasefire”: Israeli forces shelled the Ali Al-Taher hills near Nabatieh Al-Fawqa on Tuesday, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. The Israeli army carried out two rounds of demolitions in Majdal Zoun, while citizens reported large explosions near the towns of Beit Yahoun and Kounine in Bint Jbeil district, and the town of Kfar Tebnit in Nabatieh. Israeli forces also carried out a “massive demolition operation” in the town of Mays Al-Jabal, the NNA reported. On Monday, Israel struck the outskirts of Al-Mansouri, shelled Nabatieh Al-Fawqa and Kfartebnit, and demolished homes and infrastructure in Beit Yahoun, Deir Seryan, Tyri, Kfartebnit, Taybeh, and Zawtars, according to Press TV correspondent Hadi Hodeit. Israeli forces also opened fire toward Haddatha, Majdal Zoun, Zawtar Al-Gharbiyeh, and Buyout Al-Sayyad on Monday, Hoteit reported. “Pilot zone” operations begin in Lebanon: The U.S. State Department said that operations in the southern Lebanese villages of Froun, Srifa, and Zawtar al-Gharbiya were scheduled to begin on Monday, under the U.S.-brokered trilateral framework between Lebanon and Israel. The Lebanese Army announced on Tuesday a deployment to the town of Zawtar Al-Gharbiyeh in Nabatieh, after coordinating with the “Military Coordination Group for Lebanon,” established under the framework, advising citizens to avoid returning to the town. Israeli forces opened fire near Lebanese troops as they were deploying in the town on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Lebanese Army. The army warned the incident could “hinder the implementation of deployment steps” in the pilot zones. The trilateral framework calls for the Lebanese Army to take control in designated “pilot zones,” and for the disarmament and dismantling of Hezbollah and other armed groups’ infrastructure. It also urges Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon, but holds Israel, which has indicated it has no intention to leave the “security zone,” to no concrete commitments. Palestine Killed and wounded: Over the past 24 hours, 10 Palestinians were killed, one due to wounds sustained in earlier attacks, and 42 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,293 killed, with 173,906 injured. Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,168 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 3,798, while 802 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble. Israel continues escalated assault on Gaza: Israeli attacks on Gaza on Monday killed at least eight Palestinians and wounded more than 20 others. An Israeli drone struck a civilian vehicle near Al-Ghafri Junction in Gaza City, wounding up to 14 people, including children, according to local reports. Drop Site correspondent Mohamed Ahmed spoke to eyewitnesses to an attack on a makeshift shelter inside a hospital building, with a man describing its initial stages by noting that “children [were] having fun and playing football, and suddenly they started screaming.” The attack killed four Palestinians and wounded at least 16 others, according to WAFA. Video of that reporting is available here . In Khan Younis, a separate Israeli drone strike hit a civilian vehicle near the British Hospital in al-Mawasi, killing three Palestinians and wounding others. Israeli forces killed an entire family of six, including three children, in an overnight strike on a home in Gaza City as families slept. The house, which was engulfed in flames, was reportedly struck at least three times, hampering efforts to rescue survivors. “From 13 to 20 July alone, our office has recorded that the Israeli military killed at least 57 Palestinians, including six children and eight women,” UN human rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said Tuesday, addressing Israel’s escalating attacks on Gaza. Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank: Israeli settlers set fire to olive trees in the town of Beit Ilyan, northwest of occupied Jerusalem, as part of a series of attacks on Palestinians on Monday. Israeli settlers also continued to raid the village of Al-Mughir, northeast of Ramallah, storming homes in the area. Three Palestinians were injured after settlers attacked a home in the town of Raba, east of Jenin, assaulting a man and two of his sons. France urges EU to ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements: France is calling on the European Union to halt all imports of products from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Monday. A European Commission options paper has floated an import licensing system, higher tariffs, and even an outright ban on products from the West Bank, though the bloc remains split over whether and which measures to enact. France, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, and Ireland have been pushing for the EU to restrict settlement trade, while Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and others oppose EU-wide action. A 2024 International Court of Justice opinion said states must avoid trade that sustains the settlements, which are illegal under international law. Abbas reportedly planning election law change that could block Barghouti from PLO leadership : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is preparing to amend election law to restore the Palestinian Legislative Council to 132 seats while allocating 68 additional Palestinian National Council seats to be filled by “consensus,” widely understood to mean appointment, The New